Beamdog: No Baldur's Gate for Wii U, bad Nintendo experience to blame

Taking to Twitter once again, Beamdog's Trent Oster has made it painfully clear that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will not be ported to the Wii U. When asked about the possibility, Oster told a fan that "we don't do Nintendo development," adding that Beamdog's "previous experience with Nintendo was enough to ensure there will not be another [Nintendo project]."

Oster's issues with Nintendo extend from Beamdog's WiiWare port of MDK 2. A 6,000 unit sales requirement before a developer receives payment – combined with a drawn-out certification process – soured Oster's feelings for WiiWare. He also noted that the Wii's "exceptionally low attach rate" is "bad for devs" and essentially makes the Wii "a toy."

We contacted Oster for clarification on Beamdog's experience with Nintendo. "It's pretty simple," he said.

Oster claimed Beamdog self-funded the WiiWare version MDK 2 as part of its arrangement with Interplay. The team underwent the process of crunching a 400MB game down to WiiWare's 40MB size requirement – no easy task. Beamdog was "very excited" about implementing the Wii Remote, and Oster said "we worked our butts off to make a great version of the game, the best version of MDK 2 there ever was." Even with "good reviews and good coverage," and despite the work of a hired PR firm, "the game was quickly lost in the WiiWare store and failed to sell enough to earn us a dime back." While Oster did not disclose sales numbers, it would seem that MDK 2 failed to break the 6,000 download threshold.

"We don't hate Nintendo and I have fond memories of earlier consoles," concluded Oster, "but the phenomenal sales of the Wii console don't truly indicate the number of people who buy third party software on it."